The name of this summery drink comes from Mariah Balanciega, a contestant on last season's Ru Paul's Drag Race. Balanciega is a veteran of the Southern drag balls, where shade and facial expressions achieve an operatic complexity and importance. "Stone Cold Carter" refers to a look of almost aggressively disinterestedness, yet while still giving serious face. It's the blank stare of a queen who's stuck listening to you but who is not in any way actually paying you the slightest mind. My roommate Jason Schell and I immediately added "Stone Cold Carter" to our ever-growing list of Great Names For A Cocktail, and when he came up with this drink, an ostensibly sweet but in the end quite tart and spicy number, I thought it seemed a suitable match. Schell's handwritten recipe is below, but in short the drink is simply good square ice with a layer of homemade spiced cranberry syrup drizzled over it, then topped with fresh squeezed orange juice and a good deal of vodka. The spiced cranberry syrup is a creation of author and chef Will Burgess, and the Allspice and Cloves in there certainly give it a certain shady quality that fits the drink's drag inspired name. Because of the ample pectin in cranberries and how they combine with the sugar and the citrus the syrup becomes very think, allowing it to rest on the bottom of the glass, so that the cocktail gradually becomes more tart and more dense as you drink it. While this wouldn't make a great punch because of the separation, one could easily line up 6 of these and bang them out at a party or barbecue, and fast. All while only pretending to listen to your guests. J.R.
1 Lb. Fresh Cranberries
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